QueryTrackerBlog

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Rejection

Rejection is one of the most difficult parts of this business, but it is something that you will have to learn to deal with if you are going to try to become a writer. Even the best queries are going to be rejected, sometimes by hundreds of people, before the right person reads it. Even then rejection looms. A majority of manuscripts requested from authors end up being rejected as well. Sounds depressing, doesn't it? Well, that's because it is. I won't bore you with the numbers regarding how many writers are trying to get published and how many books got published this year, but I will say this. You are going to get rejected. A lot.

If you are still reading, that means that you are willing to accept the sobering facts laid out above and are still ready to go on. Congratulations! You are either an optimist or just plain stubborn, but either way you have a better chance at gaining representation than the people who are turned away by the thought of such adversity. The reason for this is that even if you have a good product, it takes a lot of work to even get anyone to look at it, and that takes a person who will continue knocking on doors until someone finally opens one. Look at J.K. Rowling. She queried many agents before one finally believed in her "little wizard" book, and now she's richer that the Queen. Literally. Now, don't get me wrong. I am not saying that if you keep plugging along that one day you will be richer than the Queen of England. I am saying, however, that if you have worked hard and created something that you believe in, then you should not let a "no" from one agent or a thousand agents deter you. Just look at the statistics on Query Tracker and you will see that people are querying a lot, and though I one day hope to see it filled, that column that says "Request for Representation" on the agent's stats is empty most of the time. It is up to us to try and change that.

Pat and I are looking forward to the day when we can create another page on Query Tracker, and that is the page where we display the authors who got book deals while querying through the site. We have several that are close and for whom we are pulling wholeheartedly, and though we don't know all of our 2,000-plus members personally, we are pulling for them too. Because a victory for them is a victory for all of us. It is encouragement and hope that maybe we will be the next ones to post our books on the Query Tracker bookshelf. Here at Query Tracker we offer tools and support to help you through this frustrating and difficult time in your life as a writer. I mean, if you're gonna go on a journey like this, you might as well have the best navigation you can get, right? So keep those queries rolling, and remember, the next rejection may just be your last.